The present invention pertains to personal body armor, particularly, garments such as vests that incorporate protective structures that prevent or reduce injury from striking ballistic projectiles such as firearms weapons and the like. Herein, the term “ballistic” means elements or constructions providing substantial such properties.
In the past, many ballistic protection devices have been constructed with high-strength materials such as aramid fibers, plastics, and other materials of relatively complex chemical makeup. One drawback of using these materials is their relative instability over their use life due to exposure to changing and various ambient conditions such as high humidity, high moisture, temperature fluctuation and solar exposure. Changes in material properties as a result of these conditions have the potential of reducing effectiveness.
In other applications of these materials, periodic testing may be used to verify that the material properties are maintained within defined requirements or limits. In applications for ballistic protection devices, the most relevant test is performance in actual resistance to ballistic impact. However, the destructive nature of such testing inevitably renders the tested article unable for continued use. What is desired is a ballistic protection device construction and system that allows destructive performance testing of the ballistic protection elements while protecting and retaining the performance capability of the ballistic protection device.